From Robert the Bruce to Mary, queen of Scots, we are used to thinking of the history of Scotland as inextricably bound with the lives and times of its kings and queens. By the time of the revolution of 1688-90 and the union of the parliaments of England and Scotland in 1707, some degree of royal authority had passed to the Scottish parliament, to the privy council and to elite actors in the Scottish political theatre, and even to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland. But these were not decades of parliamentary democracy and the wishes of the monarch and his or her close advisers were key to setting the political agenda. How do we assess this agenda-setting by monarchy and other institutions of government during the reigns of the last Scottish monarchs, William II, Mary II and Anne?
REVOLUTION
The revolution in the winter of 168890 that removed King James VII and II was something of a watershed in political and religious senses. Whig historians, who signify the importance of the authority of parliaments over that of the crown, have seen the removal of King James as an essential part of the journey to parliamentary democracy, and contemporary supporters of the revolution (Williamites) saw the revolution in even simpler terms: an absolutist ‘Catholic despot’, King James, was replaced by William of Orange, a Dutch Protestant and James’s nephew, whose queen, Mary, was also James’ daughter. It was all in the family. Mary and William were also cousins, William being the only child of William II, prince of Orange, and Princess Mary, the eldest daughter of Charles I, James’s father. Queen Anne, who succeeded William in 1702, was the sister of Queen Mary and, when she died in 1714, so too did the 350-year-old Stewart dynasty, the longest-reigning royal house in European history. The long line of succession was a matter of pride for Scottish contemporaries, but of William, Mary and Anne, only Anne ever visited, albeit in
